I love theme parks and I love dungeon crawling, so when I heard Critical Studios would combine the two for their debut action-RPG, I got a bit giddy.

Much like Magicka, which shares the same publisher (Paradox), DungeonLand is a loot-centric, co-op clickfest that has the action of Diablo and the comedic ambitions of Portal.

There are a lot of Diablo clones on the market as of late, not to mention Diablo III itself. DungeonLand stands out for a couple reasons.

Its bright, cartoon visuals make me think of Team Fortress 2 and kittens, instead of the numerous dark fantasy RPGs that flood the market. DungeonLand embraces this concept, bringing the food courts, rides, and other places that populate theme parks to life. I often get fatigued by the dreary, lifeless worlds of action-RPGs, so this is a welcome change of scenery.

Another interesting aspect of DungeonLand is its AI director. Like Left 4 Dead, the game will change up placement of items and enemies on the fly, taking party performance and resources into account. You can also have a fourth player take on the role of dungeon master, strategically placing enemies across the map in real time.

With quick drop-in/drop-out co-op, tried-and-true mechanics, and a colorful, inviting world to explore, DungeonLand could be the sleeper hit that will appeal to more than just Magicka fans.

timeline following:⇓ Dungeonland

Critical Studio and Paradox Interactive have tweaked the action-RPG Dungeonland to support a free-to-play model, opening access to portions of the game. The DM Tower stage is now unlocked for regular play and the DM Mode in w...more

Dungeonland, the ARPG-ish dungeon crawler, has quite a lot going for it. Chris came away quite surprised with the game, despite hearing some mediocre things beforehand. A large part of the game's charm has been the humo...more

Truly, I had no expectations going into Dungeonland. In fact, I opted to test it out solely because of my profuse love for action RPGs.I had heard through the grapevine that it was a "hardcore" action RPG that was completely lacking in story, and instead, played out entirely through repeating randomly spawned dungeons, similar to a rogue-like.
I was very, very surprised by the results.more

Critical Studio and Paradox Interactive are now accepting pre-orders for their cooperative hack'n'slash Dungeonland. Taking on hordes of monsters with a solid team should prove to be fun, but it's the role of the Dungeon Mae...more

An amalgamation of dungeon crawlers and strategy titles, Dungeonland is definitely not the type of game you see often. On one end, it's a hack-and-slash, class-based dungeon crawler, almost reminiscent of Diablo. From the oth...more

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